A widespread concern is what would happen to Dutch weapon systems if the Americans were to withdraw completely as an ally. For example, Dutch F-35 aircraft are dependent on American software updates. Yet, Tuinman isn’t particularly worried about this.
“The F-35 is truly a shared product. The British make the Rolls-Royce engines, and the Americans simply need them too.” And even if this mutual dependency doesn’t result in software updates, the F-35, in its current state, is still a better aircraft than other types of fighters.
If you still want to upgrade despite everything, I’m going to say something I should never say, but I will anyway: you can jailbreak an F-35 just like an iPhone. (Crack it with your own software, ed.)
You call F35 the best ? The thing cannot fly well on a rainy day & it has removed landing-gear.
Get Sukhois, Eurofighter, Migs or Gripen (Rafales are good too)
Manueverability matters less when you can fire a missile that will hit your opponent before they even know you are in the airspace.
Like I’m not trying to say the F35 is perfect, its far from it…
… But dogfights almost never happen anymore.
Air to air combat is basically # of missiles, range of missiles, threat detection/target acquisition vs stealth cpabilities.
And as we are seeing in Ukraine with drones, its very likely to become … nearly Battle Star Galactica (Newer Reboot) style realtime cyberwarfare battles.
Like, if we ever get to the point of ‘Space Battles’, they’re gonna be as much remote hacking contests as they involve any kind of physical weaponry.
For a modern military, in a general sense, yes, the F35 is the best currently. Mostly due to it’s software and sensor suite which have a much larger impact on mission performance. It’s built to an assumption of US support, which means good runways and resilient supply lines. Russian fighters are out for the same reason US fighters should be out right now (can’t trust the government).
Canada is looking for new fighters, where I think the Gripen is actually better than the F35 for our specific use case (almost entirely defensive, rough runways in arctic conditions that the F35 struggles with, need for lower maintenance requirements due to manpower and budget issues). The Swedes deal with the same conditions we need a fighter for, plus they offered a full tech transfer to revitalize our aerospace industry and help achieve autonomy for operation of the Gripen.
I can forget about stealth capabilities for a sec, but Migs, really? Enjoy your 6 mig29++++ ever built and wooden mockups of fifth gen planes.
edit: also why would they want rafales if they don’t have carriers and they’d never carry nukes?